Top Psychological Effects Caused by Balding or Hair Loss

Balding or hair fall is one of the major issues in both men and women. It cannot be prevented as they say, which is fairly true since there is no definite cause of the problem. There are cases that you are responsible for the problem or you are simply a victim of your genes.

Be reminded that balding is not a simple issue. It is associated with a great number of issues you have to go through from the onset of the problem to its latest stage.

You should be aware that aside from the physiological and physical effects of balding, there are also psychological problems related to hair fall. In order to find out, kindly read the excerpt below:

What Is Balding?

You can also consider balding as hair loss. The terms are just different but both refer to pattern baldness, scarring alopecia, alopecia areata, telogen effluvium, and anagen effluvium. If you are currently suffering from the problem, most likely you have male-pattern or female-pattern baldness, which is the most common type of balding.

Normally, the problem affects men by the age of 50. It is also found out that it is common in 50 percent of all men, particularly when they reach the aforementioned age. However, it can start early, such as in the late 20s and early 30s. By the time men mature to the late 30s, they will have some degree of balding.

Balding often begins with receding hairline pattern. Moreover, it is also portrayed by temple and crown’s hair thinning. Once it progresses, men often develop a horseshoe shape on the sides and back of their head.

Besides men, women may also go through the balding process. Usually, when females are concerned the baldness begins at the top of their head.

For male-pattern baldness, it is touted that it can be due to heredity, male sex hormones, and underlying condition. As for female-pattern baldness, it is uncertain if the problem is due to hereditary. Even the probable causes are difficult to discern.

What Are the Possible Causes of Balding?

Before you even proceed to understand the psychological effects of balding, you should also be aware of what has likely caused it. Given below are the following contributing factors that may play a role in your baldness:

Physical Stress. You may suffer from baldness due to a severe illness, surgery, flu, and car accident. Furthermore, this cause may result to telogen effluvium. You must be aware that your hair has a programmed procedure, which includes the growth, rest, and shedding phases.

According to physicians, whenever your body is in shock, even the hair development cycle is affected. The more your body in the state of stress, the shedding will likely take place. Following your trauma, balding may be observable three to six months after.

This does not mean that you do not have hope since most baldness cases related to physical stress are temporary. In other words, once you recover, your hair will start growing back.

Nutritional Deficiency. It is also possible for your head to become bald when you consume too much vitamin A. In this case, it is not advisable to overdo medications or supplements containing the vitamin. Every day, you should only have 5,000 International Units (IU). Unfortunately, products with the nutrient content as much as 10,000 IU of vitamin A.

You can prevent the worsening baldness of your head by putting a halt on taking the medications or supplements with too much vitamin A. Once done, you may see your hair growing back as it should.

In contrary, if you are lacking protein, you may suffer from baldness as well. Hair growth will shut down without protein, which is proven by the American Academy of Dermatology. Following a drop in protein consumption, baldness may develop for around two to three months.

To reverse the baldness that may result to lack of protein, you should consume eggs, meat, and fish. As much as possible, you limit intake of animal products or meat.

Underlying Condition. You may become bald if you have an underlying ailment. One of the possible causes of your baldness is anemia, which is diagnosed in one out of 10 women, particularly of ages 20 to 49.

In order to check if you have a type of anemia, your physician will take a blood test for you. In order to correct this, you should consider taking an iron supplement. Besides hair loss, anemia may also result to cold hands, fatigue, pale skin, dizziness, and headache.

Another disorder that may result to baldness is hypothyroidism, which is also known as an underactive thyroid gland. This problem results to an insufficient number of hormones that are important for growth, development, and metabolism. Relatively, your hair loss may be reversed by bringing back the levels of thyroid hormones in your body.

Explaining the Psychological Effects of Balding or Hair Loss

There is a variety of emotional and psychological issues related to hair loss or balding. Primarily, it is about thinking what people think about you. Also, there are people who are concerned with their perception of themselves.

You are fortunate if you will be able to accept it right away. However, in most cases, people find it hard to accept it. For them, it is a devastating occurrence in their life, leading to anxiety and depression.

Regardless of whether your baldness is in its early or late stage, you should understand the emotional distress associated with it. You must also verify if your problem is legitimate.

Given below are the possible psychological effects of being bald:

Confidence Loss. Hair loss apparently has a large impact on your appearance. Most people appear to be aged even though they are still young due to baldness. As expected, this will extensively affect a person’s view of himself or herself.

According to the American Academy of Dermatology after conducting a study in 1992, women have a more difficult time handling baldness. Most of the females with hair loss suffer both mentally and emotionally. In addition, bald women have a higher chance of developing a negative body image compared to men.

As for men, the same research found out that 75 percent of bald men lose confidence about their self-image during the problem’s onset. Alternatively, there is 60 percent of bald men who shared that they have looked down on due to their hair loss at some point.

Baldness also has a large impact on one’s social activities, such as dating and building relationships. When younger people suffer from hair loss, most of them think that their desirability and youthfulness have also been lost. They even think that they are less attractive compared to their partners.

Once confidence is lost, it is also anticipated that even your self-esteem will negatively be affected. Bald men and women suffer from poor performance in the workplace. For instance, instead of being confident conversing with people, baldness sufferers lose their edge to work better in their field.

There are also studies that have revealed that there are bald applicants who were rejected by employers for they look older. Surprisingly, 63 percent of women stated that they suffer from problems related to their job due to hair loss.

Depression. This is a worse case for baldness sufferers. There are men and women who undergo great difficulty dealing with their baldness or hair loss, particularly when the condition is chronic. There are even people reported to have lost control of their lives due to hair loss.

Despair is apparent whenever they find out that their hair loss condition can no longer be reversed. High levels of anxiety are also associated with the depression. Did you know that there are people suffering from baldness that is even diagnosed with body dysmorphic disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder?

You must remember that despite the unlikely effects of baldness to your psychological health, you can still treat your problem. For instance, you can avoid your hair from falling out completely. Moreover, there are solutions today that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), namely, minoxidil and finasteride.

How Can You Cope With Baldness-Related Psychological Problems?

You have a lot of things to do in order to cope with your depression, anxiety, or loss of confidence due to baldness. Given below are the following:

Baldness is not life-threatening. Consider reminding yourself about this fact. If you will do so, you will be able to find out that hair loss is only challenging as you deem it is.

Try out beauty solutions. Did you know you may still be stylish despite being bald? You may wear hat, scarf, or even wig.

Give way to a talk therapy. A mental health professional may help you go through your problem. Having someone to support you will expedite your recovery.

From the provided facts about the top psychological effects of baldness, you are now made aware of the truth. You may be suffering from baldness but you should not let it get in your way. You can still live the way you wanted even if you are suffering from hair loss. It is all about perspective and acceptance.

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3 Comments

Last year, I suffered a period of about 4 months where I was in incredible pain. A few months after my body recovered, I started noticing hair loss. Since then, I have just lost all confidence in myself. I hate being bald and often times try to hide it with a ball cap.

Balding is becoming more and more over the years. They also say male hairlessness (balding) represents over 95% of male pattern baldness in men. By the age of thirty-five 66% of men will encounter some level of apparent male pattern baldness, and by the age of fifty around 85% of men have altogether diminishing hair

I agree that stress is one thing that can make one go bald. I know that two years ago, I suffered a job loss. I stressed out after not being able to find a job right away. I was really down on my luck and to top it off, I started to suffer from hair loss. It was such an emotional time for me. Not something that I really would want to relive again.